Deathmatch start

Deathmatch starts are positions on a level where players start (and respawn) in a deathmatch game.

Normally, there are four to ten per level. One of them is chosen at random each time a player joins or respawns. A respawning player will telefrag any player or monster who happens to be standing on that deathmatch start.

In the WAD file, deathmatch starts are stored as Things. However, since they do not spawn an associated mobj, they are normally invisible.

Multiplayer mode allows up to four players, so a level needs at least four deathmatch starts in order to be used for deathmatch games; the engine will exit with an error message if there are less than four. MAP28: The Spirit World, for example, had only two (in version 1.666 and earlier), and therefore could not be played in deathmatch mode.

The maximum number of usable deathmatch starts in vanilla Doom is ten. If a map contains more than ten deathmatch starts, only those with the ten lowest Thing numbers are used.

Appearance statistics
The Doom IWADs contain the following numbers of deathmatch starts per skill level:

The Heretic IWADs contain the following numbers of deathmatch starts per skill level:

The Hexen IWADs contain the following numbers of deathmatch starts per skill level:

The Strife IWAD contains the following numbers of deathmatch starts per skill level:

Of the maps covered on the Doom Wiki, the following have the highest numbers of deathmatch starts: This data was last verified on June 16, 2023.